“Kevin, did you break your glass on purpose?”
Blown Away Judge
We are all doing things in our lives that have to be done. But are we doing them on purpose?
I help a number of my friends and proteges with their new companies, and one of the things I talk about is branding. People often think they aren’t doing any branding, but every company does branding.
You see every company has a brand. Jeff Bazos defines brand as “What people say about you when you aren’t in the room.”
To me it is what your company is about, or more accurately what other people think your company is about. It is also all the aspects of your company that when people see them, they think of your company.
Now the question is, are you building your brand intentionally? Or is it happening by chance?
There are lots of ways to influence people to think of your company in a particular way. But you have to do things intentionally and consistently to do that.
I was struck by the judge’s question to the artist on the Netflix glass blowing reality show. We’d seen Kevin break his work just minutes before the end of the days competition. Then we’d seen the carefully laid out pieces of it in the final presentation.
But her question says something about intentionality in art. I’m sure there are glass artists who might make something and then break it in a very specific and intentional way to say something. If the artist had done that, then the piece needs to be judged that way. Her question was about intentionality.
In branding using your company’s name in a consistent way insures people know what to call you. Consistent use of colors, fonts and logos makes people think of your company every time they see those. Consistency requires intentionality.
We all do things over and over out of habit. The question is were those habits formed intentionally. In our personal life, we need to think about what habits we want to have and intentionally build them. In business we need to train habits into our people and customers.
Getting what you want in life requires intentionality. You have to know what you want, why you want it, and how you are going to get it. Then you have to do very specific things intentionally. You have to think about and create experiments that will teach you something. You have to try something and know if it moves you closer to your desired end state.
Most people just do whatever seems like it might or should get them what they want. Often they put a lot of time, effort, and money into these actions. Then when it doesn’t move them closer to where they want to be, they double down and just do it more.
If you intentionally do something, you can measure if it has worked. If you are intentional, you have control over what you do, and the results are feedback on those actions.
What are you doing intentionally to get what you want?
